music-rights

Interpolation credits acknowledge songwriters when a new track reuses a melodic or compositional phrase from an earlier recording. Unlike a sample, which replays a recording, an...

The "masters" are the original recording of a song, not the underlying composition or lyrics. Ownership of the masters determines who can license, stream, sell, or modify the re...

In the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, Coldplay’s music underscores key emotional beats, notably the song “Fix You” . The track plays late in the film during a reflective, r...

The Beatles’ music is primarily owned and administered by Sony Music Publishing, which acquired the historic Northern Songs catalog in 2016; meanwhile, Apple Corps retains ove...

Justin Bieber’s music catalog has changed hands more than once, with each transaction reshaping how his songs are owned and licensed. The most prominent verified sale occurred...

Bob Marley’s music is among the most widely recognized songs in the world, yet many listeners remain uncertain about who controls and profits from these recordings and composi...

In 2019, Taylor Swift publicly announced she would re-record her first six albums after losing ownership of the original master recordings to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings f...

At its core, the Taylor Swift masters dispute centers on who owns the original studio recordings of her first six albums and how that ownership affects artists, catalog value, a...

In 2019, a public sale of master recordings pitted Taylor Swift against Scooter Braun and ignited sustained industry debate over ownership, artist rights, and label practices. T...

In mid-2019, music rights management company Ithaca Holdings acquired the master recordings of Taylor Swift's first six albums and immediately licensed them to Braun's company,...

Taylor Swift is signed to Republic Records, a flagship label within Universal Music Group, as of the late 2020s. This followed her return to Universal in a new global deal annou...

Taylor Swift sold the masters of her first six albums to shift long-term control of her catalog while retaining performance rights and creating leverage for future negotiations....

While Taylor Swift is known for her storytelling across many themes, references to cats in her songs are not central to her catalog, though they appear in a few lyrics and fan a...

One Direction is owned collectively by its five members—Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson—who share songwriting credits, performance rig...

Scooter Braun sold the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first six albums to Shamrock Holdings in March 2025, ending a years-long rights dispute that began when Braun’s It...